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TEKsystems Research Details Fundamental Shifts in CIO Role

TEKsystems (News - Alert)®, a leading provider of IT
staffing solutions and IT
services, today detailed findings that indicate a fundamental shift
impacting current roles and expectations of IT departments, which in
turn are creating changes to the leadership responsibilities of CIOs.
Gathered in conjunction with its 2018
IT Forecast, data indicates CIOs will need to adopt a dual role with
an increasing shift toward becoming a "partner-liaison" for tech
initiatives outside core IT's traditional domain. Trends indicate new
initiatives still owned by core IT are being increasingly outsourced,
accompanied by an upswing in tech initiatives being directed by other
internal lines-of-business. The end result is that IT leaders are
indicating their roles are evolving, with internal IT department
personnel increasingly being leveraged for maintaining existing systems,
and strategic new initiatives laying outside the purview of centralized
IT. Additionally, while an increasing percentage of CIOs hope to occupy
a transformational role within organizations in the next two years, in
reality, the opportunity may lay outside traditional responsibilities.

Results are based on a survey which polled more than 1,000 IT leaders
(e.g., chief information officers, IT vice presidents, IT directors, IT
hiring managers) in October 2017 on a range of key issues, including IT
staffing and budgets, skill needs and expected organizational challenges
in 2018.

Key highlights include:

IT Leaders Declining in Criticality While Project Managers Holding
Steady

Ranking and percentage of respondents indicating "Executive
(C-suite) leaders" are the absolute most critical for enabling the
organization to achieve success in the coming year

Year

Rank

Percentage

2016

10

12%

2017

13

10%

2018

13

6%

Ranking and percentage of respondents indicating "VP and
director-level leaders" are the absolute most critical for enabling
the organization to achieve success in the coming year

Year

Rank

Percentage

2016

10

19%

2017

10

17%

2018

11

10%

Ranking and percentage of respondents indicating "IT managers"
are the absolute most critical for enabling the organization to
achieve success in the coming year

Year

Rank

Percentage

2016

2

34%

2017

5

24%

2018

9

15%

Ranking and percentage of respondents indicating "project
managers" are the absolute most critical for enabling the
organization to achieve success in the coming year

Year

Rank

Percentage

2016

3

30%

2017

2

32%

2018

2

32%

TEKsystems' Take: TEKsystems notes that prior to 2016,
CIOs, VPs of IT and IT managers were considered by a relatively higher
number of respondents as most critical for organizational success.
However, beginning in 2016, their perceived importance began to
diminish. Although these high-level IT roles are still important,
TEKsystems believes that a key transitional aspect of the CIO is to
become the main strategic liaison in the management of an ecosystem that
includes business partners and outside vendors involved in new
initiatives outside of centralized IT, while also serving as a
consultant to internal lines-of-business running their own IT efforts.
As their internally-focused role within their own IT departments becomes
increasingly tactical, unless IT leaders start to showcase strategic
value as consultative partners, their positions within organizations
could be marginalized, or perhaps disintermediated.

IT Leaders View Their Roles as Becoming Increasingly Transformational

Q: What is the role of your IT organization in the business today
and where do you see it in the next 12-24 months -
Functional/enabling*, Engaging**, Transforming***?

Today

Expected in the next 12-24 months

Functional/enabling

16%

10%

Engaging

51%

49%

Transforming

34%

41%

*Functional/enabling (focused on efficiency, oversight of
IT investments/spending and delivering operational support)

**Engaging (uses business' strategy to formulate IT vision and
strategy; proactively focused on improving business processes and
operations)

***Transforming (dedicated to driving innovation and helping the
organization gain a competitive edge)

TEKsystems' Take: Contrary to data that indicates IT leaders
becoming less critical to organizational success, the number of CIOs and
executive IT leaders indicating their roles will become responsible for
more transformational activities during the next 12-24 months is
increasing. Against a backdrop where many cutting edge technologies-such
as big data AI, automation, and IoT-are being implemented outside of
core IT (i.e. marketing, sales), as well as core IT being increasingly
outsourced (DevOps, Cloud), efforts will require leadership and
consultancy outside of centralized IT.

Centralized IT Support of New Initiatives Now Commensurate Efficiency
and "Lights-On" Efforts

Business objectives that IT will most need to support:

Business Objective

2016

2017

2018

Improving efficiency

31% (Rank #5)

29% (Rank #4)

35% (Rank #1)

Implementing NEW IT applications and infrastructure

45% (Rank #1)

40% (Rank #2)

33% (Rank #2)

Improving EXISTING IT applications and infrastructure

43% (Rank #2)

47% (Rank #1)

31% (Rank #3)

TEKsystems' Take: When asked about the business
initiatives IT will most need to support in the coming year, improving
efficiency has leaped to the top spot while trends indicate declining
emphasis on implementing new IT applications, highlighting an increase
in "maintenance mode" for centralized IT. Overall, IT departments will
be expected to place essentially equal emphasis on all three areas:
efficiency, new applications and existing applications. TEKsystems
believes this is due to the continued decentralization of IT and the
increasing assumption that other business functions are responsible for
driving their own IT innovation. This is further evidence that in 2018,
senior IT management, especially at the C-level, must adapt to changing
demands that straddle both traditional IT responsibilities and new
responsibilities external to centralized IT if they seek to maintain
strategic, leadership positions.

Spending Trends Bolster Movement Towards Decentralization

APPROACHES TOWARDS DECENTRALIZATION

Q: How do you expect spending to change next year for the
following?

Managed, project-based or statement-of-work services

2016

2017

2018

Increase

31%

43%

47%

Stay the same

61%

52%

43%

Decrease

8%

5%

10%

Outsourcing

2016

2017

2018

Increase

37%

29%

35%

Stay the same

53%

57%

50%

Decrease

10%

14%

15%

TEKsystems' Take: Organizations seem to be taking a
balanced approach on spending, with budget growth toward externally
oriented approaches now equal to internally oriented approaches. In
reviewing the traditional methods that many organizations look to
leverage in addressing skills or project needs, historically they
started with internally-focused efforts such as training or augmenting
staff. Conversely, if organizations choose to outsource, they generally
shift to project-based / statement-of-work activities or outsourcing
entire initiatives. The data over the last three years shows that
internally-focused efforts have remained mostly the same, while external
facing approaches have continued to see an uptick.

"While few disagree that the IT department is changing, there hasn't
been a lot of insight into the specific impact of that change," said
TEKsystems Research Manager Jason Hayman. "One way to illustrate this is
to consider the changing role of the CIO. Data shows that IT leaders
view themselves as becoming more transformational over the next two
years, but data also indicates that the traditional purview of IT will
not provide that opportunity. As centralized IT will be expected to
contribute less in the way of innovation and more in the way of support
and efficiency, strategic CIOs will change from managing all of IT to
additionally acting as a strategic line-of-business partner. Another
driver for that transition is the application of the IT outsourcing
model to areas of the business outside core IT. As different strategic
projects are led by varying groups and departments, there will be a need
for a technology liaison who can bridge the gap between traditional IT,
business leaders, outsourced IT pros and newer LOB players who will have
authority in selecting technology that gives their group a strategic
advantage. CIOs who will thrive are those who demonstrate relevance and
work to elevate their departments and keep pushing their capabilities as
transformative partners, while less developed or unprepared CIOs will
see the IT department's role relegated to a static one and may even see
key responsibilities go to newer roles in the organization, such as the
addition of a chief innovation officer. Innovation within the
organization and the delivery of strategic solutions will continue; how
much the CIO is a part of that will be up to them."

TEKsystems' Jason Hayman is available for additional commentary. For
more information about the survey, or to schedule an interview, please
contact Nathan Bowen at nabowen@TEKsystems.com.

About TEKsystems®

People are at the heart of every successful business initiative. At
TEKsystems, an Allegis Group company, we understand people. Every year
we deploy more than 80,000 IT professionals at 6,000 client sites across
North America, Europe and Asia. Our deep insights into IT human capital
management enable us to help our clients achieve their business
goals-while optimizing their IT workforce strategies. We provide IT
staffing solutions, IT talent management expertise and IT services to
help our clients plan, build and run their critical business
initiatives. Through our range of quality-focused delivery models, we
meet our clients where they are, and take them where they want to go,
the way they want to get there.